Dayton Daily News

A business trip to Florida in mid-January turned into a muscle car bonanza for Rick Willis. The Dayton native and West Chester resident added a very rare 1969 Mercury Cyclone 428 CJ to his collection.

"I stayed over in Florida for a few days, and found out about a Mecum Auction so I headed over on Saturday. I've always got my eye out for muscle cars, and when I first saw this car, it really hit me. It is just done so well. I started looking it over closely, and I just kept saying, 'WOW,'" Willis explained.

"Then I looked over the documentation, and realized that I don't think I've ever seen a car restored to this level of originality. It's just right on the money."

This is where the numbers come into play. According to the Ford Motor Co. database and the build sheet supplied with the car, in 1969, there were 6,968 Mercury Cyclone Fastbacks built. Of those, 260 had the 428-cubic-inch Cobra Jet engine. One hundred fifty-two were built with automatic transmission, 14 were built with the Super Cobra Jet engine and only one was painted white. That's the car Willis now owns — one of one!

It's pretty much the classic muscle car, built to compete with the Plymouth Roadrunners of the day. The fastback roof line is impressive, and only the CJ decals indicate anything special under the hood until you see the hood scoop. That's where the Ram Air comes into play, forcing fresh air into the

4-barrel carburetor and allowing the big block to pound out 335 horsepower.

Power gets to the road through a 3-speed C-6 Cruise-O-Matic automatic transmission to a 3.91 Traction Lok rear end, all part of the Drag Pack option. It was Mercury's version of the showroom-to-drag-strip super-stock racecar.

Willis has no intentions of trailering his new acquisition around.

"I drive my cars, all of them. This one is really nice, but we're gonna drive it."

In addition to the Cyclone, Willis has a '67 Pontiac GTO, a '66 Shelby Cobra, a '70 Corvette big block and a '59 MGA.

"This all just fell together real fast. I would be hard to restore a car to this level, and considering what I paid for it — well, it's was almost too good to be true. I got it for about two thirds of what the owner said he paid for the restoration," Willis said.

The car has only 540 miles on it since the restoration was completed, but Willis did discover one little problem. The headlights were Sylvania instead of the original FoMoCo brand.

"We looked around a bit, and found a set of FoMoCos and put those in. Now, it's just right."

To nominate your special vehicle for Wheels of the Week, contact us at: Wheels, Marketing Publications Department, Dayton Daily News, 1611 S. Main St., Dayton OH 45409 or via e-mail at arollins@coxohio.com. Include your name, phone number and a photo of your vehicle.